crosstree

English

Etymology

cross +‎ tree

Noun

crosstree (plural crosstrees)

1. (nautical) A light timber or metal spreader fixed athwartships part way up a mast to spread the shrouds from higher up
   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 35”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     Your most usual point of perch is the head of the t’ gallant-mast, where you stand upon two thin parallel sticks (almost peculiar to whalemen) called the t’ gallant crosstrees.

Translations

a light timber to spread the shrouds

• Dutch: zaling (nl) m
• Finnish: saalinki
• German: Saling (de) f
• Hebrew: קֵרוּי עֵרֶב (he) m (kerui erev)
• Polish: saling (pl) m
• Russian: са́линг (ru) m (sáling)

Anagrams

• rectoress, retrocess, secretors